Essential is slashing the price of its eponymous phone, down to $499 at its website. That’s a $200 price cut from the original $699 price, less than two months after it began shipping to customers. There is really no other way to read the move except as a signal that it wasn’t selling well at $699 — especially given that the only US carrier stores it’s available in have “Sprint” above the door. It certainly doesn’t help that it now has to face the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL head-to-head.

Kind of hard to go up against Google and Samsung at $700 price points.

I just ordered one, with the $99 replacement plan. Price is really good, reviews seem solid, and my iPhone's battery seems to be slipping. I'll probably be back to Apple in 1-2 years, we'll see though. I can still sell my iPhone for a good amount, makes the change pretty inexpensive.

This thing is NICE. The fingerprint sensor works very well, the phone feels super premium and very nice in the hands. It's heavier than I expected, but much smaller than my 6s+. It's as if you cut the top bezel off the 6s+ entirely, and extend the screen halfway down the home button. Really impressed by this thing in my short time with it. I also didn't have to call MetroPCS to set it up, so that's a nice thing. Wasn't so lucky when I transferred my iPhone to them...